Kentisbeare Church of St Mary Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Mary
Kentisbeare
Cullompton
EX15 2BG
Geographical coordinates
50°51’53.7″N 3°19’32.4″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A major East Devon church this one, with some beautiful white and red stonework on the tower and some ace carving around one of the south windows.
Inside there are some quality medieval angels along the wall plate of the south aisle and fine carved pillar capitals into the bargain.
The rood screen here is true star, one of the best in the county which means one of the best in the country too. The carving is outstanding, the overall design a true pleasure and the subtle original colour emphasises the delicacy of the whole.
There is also a rood stairs door with its original colouring which is astounding.
In the nave there a couple of charmingly lettered Ten Commandment boards and an interesting memorial to Walter Scott’s nephew, Rev George Scott. Also a finely tiled reredos.
The south chapel is a delight too, with good tombs and old 16th century panelling from a local country house.
The 17th century west gallery is a real find with original colours on its carvings, and later 18th century paintings of the Four Evangelists and more.
An excellent church this, and the rood screen especially deserves a good long appreciation.
Outline
PLAN
- West tower
- Nave
- North west porch
- Chancel
- South aisle to both nave and chancel
- Vestry added at west end of south aisle
AGE
- Tower and chancel late C14 or early C15
- Nave possibly incorporates earlier work
- South aisle added by John Whityng (died 1529)
- C19 vestry
BUILT FROM
- A great variety of different stone
- Beer stone
- A rare cinnamon coloured red sandstone quarried near Cullompton
- Otherwise mostly coursed or random rubble sandstone
- Some volcanic trap and Beer stone
- C19 work in limestone
- Vestry of flint
- Dry slate roofs
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Tall
- Battlemented of two stages with plinth
- North side is the show front
- With battlemented polygonal stair turret
- Set-back buttresses
- Decorated in a chequer pattern
- Two-light belfry openings
- Perpendicular three-light window
- Contemporary west doorway
NORTH SIDE
- Nave wall is the only part of the church that lacks a plinth
- Masonry is also laid differently
- Possibly earlier
- Two late C15 or early C16 three-light Perpendicular windows to nave
CHANCEL
- Smaller Perpendicular windows than nave
- Much renewed
SOUTH SIDE
- Good set of early C16 windows
- That to the south aisle east almost intact
- The others restored
- Stair turret to rood loft and aisle roof
PORCH
- C15
- Ceiled wagon roof
- Canopied niches above both inner and outer doorways
- That to the former the more elaborate of the two
VESTRY
- Late C19
- Roof aligned north-south
Interior
NAVE AND AISLE
- No chancel arch
- Five bay arcade
- Crisp,high-quality foliated capitals
- Those to the west piers are of coarse workmanship
- Wavy mouldings to piers.
- Pier flanking the Whityng chapel is adorned with his coat of arms
- And the symbols of his trade.
- Tower arch with panelled intrados
- C17 bellringing chamber floor
- Pulpit apparently once dated 1736
- Signed by Isaac Bonifant
- C18 charity boards.
- C19 nave benches and chancel stalls
- Reredos of 1881
- Hexagonal stone font
- Probably C15
- Embellished with shield-bearing angles at wall plate level in south aisle
ROOFS
- Ceiled wagon roof throughout
- All medieval
- Except above the Whytyng chapel
- Which is C19
ROOD SCREEN
- Ten bay
- One of the finest in the country
- Flamboyant elements,
- A great variety of design and detailing
- Each bay is different
- Bligh Bond considered it to be the prototype of the ‘Exe-Valley’ class of screens
- Displays the arms of John Whityng
PARCLOSE SCREEN
- Four bays
- A different design
- Less well preserved
SOUTH CHAPEL
- Early C16 piscina
- C16 panelling to east wall
- Believed to have been brought here from Bradfield House
WEST GALLERY
- Fine gallery
- dated 1632
- With cornice and rail
- Presumably added in the late C18 or early C19
- When the gallery was re-seated
MONUMENTS
- (1) Tomb chest of John Whityng in the Whityng chapel
- Beer stone with polyphant top
- Brasses largely missing
- But illustrated in Hamilton Rogers ‘Sepulchral Effigies of Devonshire’
- (2)Tomb chest of Lady Buildford
- Died 1558
- Also in the Whityng chapel
- Memorial inscription brass set into the C16 panelling along the east wall.
- (3)Two wall monuments
- Commemorate charities
- (a) of William Evelyn,died 1671
- north wall of nave
- (b) Edmund Crosse (not dated,but C17)
- Both stone with architrave.
- (4)Wall monument to Rev.J.W.Scott
- Died 1820
- Chancel south wall
- A good cosmopolitan piece (not signed)
- Commemorating Sir Walter Scott’s nephew
- Scott penned the inscription
- Which is placed on a scroll
- Hanging over an obliquely-set sarcophagus
- The whole revealed by a life-sized naked child
- All marble
STAINED GLASS
- Medieval fragments in south aisle,east window
- East window,and possibly the others in the chancel,by Clayton and Bell,1882
Other information
Built to the memory of Sir William Prouz (d. 1329) by his three daughters and co-heiresses
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
